Theatre: The Lively Art Paperback - 2012

Ed Wilson is both a leading figure in the New York theatre scene as well as a nationally recognized theatre educator and author. Unlike any other author of theatre texts, he brings both extensive professional New York theatre and educational theatre perspectives to his works.

For twenty-two years Ed was the theater critic of the Wall Street Journal. He has served on the Tony Nominating Committee and the Pulitzer Prize Drama Jury. A long time member of the New York Drama Critics Circle, he was president of the Circle for several years. He is on the board of the John Golden Fund and was also for many years on the Board of the Theater Development Fund, of which he served as President.

Ed has produced plays on and off Broadway and served one season as the resident director of the Barter Theatre in Abingdon, Virginia. He also produced a feature film, The Nashville Sound, recently made available on DVD. He is the author of two original plays, a farce, The Bettinger Prize, and a play about Ponce de Leon, Waterfall. He wrote the book and lyrics for a musical version of Great Expectations. All three have been given a series of successful readings in New York City and elsewhere. Great Expectations was given a full production for three weeks at the Mill Mountain Theatre in Roanoke, Virginia. He conceived the idea of a musical revue of the songs of Jerome Kern which had a well-received try-out production at Catholic University in Washington, D.C.

Ed is also an author on three of the most widely used college theater texts in the U. S. The twelfth edition of his pioneer book, The Theatre Experience, was published in 2011 by McGraw-Hill. The eighth edition of his text Theater: The Lively Art (co-authored with Alvin Goldfarb) has just been released. The sixth edition of Living Theatre: History of Theatre (also co-authored with Alvin Goldfarb), was published in 2012; it is the most widely adopted theatre history textbook in the United States and is also available in Italian and Korean versions. Wilson and Goldfarb have also edited three editions of Anthology of Living Theatre. Ed is also the editor of Shaw on Shakespeare, most recently re-issued by Applause Books.

Ed has taught at Vanderbilt, Yale, Hunter College and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. He was also the Executive Director of the Segal Theatre Center at the CUNY Graduate Center. Ed attended Vanderbilt, the University of Edinburgh, and Yale University where he received the first Doctor of Fine Arts degree awarded by Yale.

Alvin (Al) Goldfarb is a nationally known theatre educator and administrator. Al served as chair of the department of Theatre, Dean of Fine Arts, and Provost and Academic Vice President at Illinois State University. While at Illinois State University, he taught many students who have gone on to significant professional careers in Chicago theatres (including members of the Steppenwolf Theatre Company), in regional theatres across the country, on Broadway, as well as in film and television. Al served as President of Western Illinois University from 2002 to 2011, where he led the successful campaign to build a new Performing Arts Center, just as he had done at Illinois State University. He now holds the title President Emeritus at Western and continues to teach theatre.

Throughout his distinguished administrative career, Al continued to teach and publish. He has published articles and reviews in leading journals. With Ed Wilson, he is the coauthor of Living Theatre: A History and Theatre: the Lively Art as well as coeditor of The Anthology of Living Theater. Al is also the coeditor, with Rebecca Rovit, of Theatrical Performance during the Holocaust: Texts, Documents, Memoirs, which was a National Jewish Book Award finalist.

Al served as a member of the Illinois Arts Council and president of the Illinois Alliance for Arts Education. He has received a service award from the latter organization as well as the Kennedy Center Gold Medallion from the American College Theater Festival. Al also received alumni achievement awards from the City University of New York Graduate Center's Alumni Association and from Hunter College of C.U.N.Y.

Al received his B.A. from Queens College of C.U.N.Y., graduating Phi Beta Kappa, his M.A. from Hunter College of C.U.N.Y., where he studied with renowned theatre artists and educators, including Harold Clurman, Donald Oenslager, and Vera Roberts, and his Ph.D. from the City University of New York Graduate Center.